


Tarnished

by kenwave



Series: Reaper76 Week - 2017 [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Reaper76 Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-14 22:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9208403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenwave/pseuds/kenwave
Summary: Before he finally fires, he can’t help his mind going back to his earlier train of thought: how did everything come to this?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1: Time. "How we were."

Standing in front of Jack Morrison, breathing heavily while gripping at his side, he can’t help but wonder how it came to this, how both of them had fallen so far from where they started. 

Cuts and holes litter his clothing, torn and burned from pulse munition. Palms sweaty, body and mind more tired than he could ever remember being. A shotgun almost slips from his tired fingers, shoulders heave as he breathes, entire body moving with the motion of his lungs. He lost the other shotgun at some point during their fight, threw it aside when he realised it no longer held any ammo. The man in front of him fares no better. 

Sweat is pasting Jack’s greying blond hair to his forehead, making it darker. Scratches mar his features, blood dripping steadily down his face onto his tattered blue duster and scratched up armour. 

Gabriel grins, blood dripping from behind his goatee staining his teeth red. He feels satisfaction at the knowledge he finally made the golden boy something other than perfect. It was a reminder Jack is just as human as the rest of them, despite how he sometimes believed himself to be greater. 

“Not so golden anymore.” He chuckles. It soon turns into a cough as he spits out blood that gathers in his throat. Shit. 

Jack just grips his pulse rifle tighter, pulling it closer to his chest. Something he only does when he feels uneasy. Gabriel hates how well he still knows him. Hates the sadness, confusion, and betrayal he sees in Jack’s eyes when he’s the one that had been betrayed. 

Anger surges through him as he brings up the shotgun once more, aiming at the blond man in front of him. He can see resignation in Jack’s eyes as his index finger tickles the trigger. He slowly starts to apply more pressure, Jack frozen in front of him, unmoving, unblinking. Before he finally fires, he can’t help his mind going back to his earlier train of thought: how did everything come to this? 

Once upon a time they had been best friends, partners,  _ lovers.  _ Spending every moment of free time they had with each other. 

Even when their friendship had been new, they had gotten along. Joined at the hip, acting like they'd known each other for years opposed to the reality of them having just met. They could read each other inside and out, it’s what made them such good partners. 

And  _ they were _ throughout the entirety of the Omnic Crisis, one always having the other’s back in a fight, making up for weaknesses. They were partners up until Jack got that promotion, his acceptance of the position a betrayal to Gabriel. 

He was given command of Blackwatch, marking the end of the close partnership between the two men. They saw each other less and less, and when they were able to finally have a conversation, the nature of their separate positions would cause them to argue. Blackwatch becoming the dirty little secret Overwatch had hidden away inside its closet.

And when shit started hitting the fan, all the blame was placed on Blackwatch, an organisation that Gabriel had worked so hard to run flawlessly, like a well oiled machine. He got criminals and unruly soldiers to work together when others told him it would be impossible.

The last positive memory he has of himself and Morrison is the night before all the information about Blackwatch had somehow been leaked. Tired, they had both spent the evening in each other’s company, in each other’s arms, sharing a moment of peace and quiet together, something they hadn’t done in years - decades even. 

Memories wash away as he takes in the tableau in front of him, and is it ever a tableau. Jack hasn’t moved a muscle, hasn’t even blinked. Gabriel’s still holding up his shotgun, arm stiff from the weight of keeping it in the same position, finger as still as death on the trigger. 

“Do it,” Jack whispers, voice weak, breathing heavy. “I’d be able to forgive myself if I died by your hands, Gabe.” 

“Don’t.” Gabriel clenches his jaw tight, hard eyes examining the form in front of him. The once strong posture that Jack always had has faded away. He’s hunched slightly. Tired. As if the weight of the world rests on his shoulders. 

Jack always believed himself to be the only one who could save the world. Selfish. 

He just stares ahead, staring past Gabriel, hard blue eyes focusing on nothing, undoubtedly waiting for a bullet in his chest, ready for the pain it will cause him. Ready for the death he believes he deserves at the hands of his former best friend. 

Gabriel’s finger twitches, he starts applying pressure onto the trigger, only to aim away from the blond in front of him at the last moment, bullet hitting the cement ceiling, debris crumbling down onto their heads. 

“Gabe wha-” 

But before Jack could even finish, an explosion rocks through the base. The ceiling comes bearing down around them, a steel beam losing its balance, teetering toward Jack. 

Before he knows it, he’s lying on his stomach, in an agonising amount of pain, Jack unconscious in front of him. He tries to move toward him, but he’s stuck. Both legs pinned - crushed - by the beam that was threatening to crush Jack. 

Gabriel hadn’t even thought when he registered what was about to happen. 

Just like back when they had been partners, attached at the hip, Gabriel still has the back of the man that was once his everything. 

The world starts to darken around the edges, the unconscious form of Jack’s body the last thing to finally disappear from his vision. 

Gabriel wheezes out a weak laugh, his last. He knows this is the end for him. 

He doesn’t hear the shouting when Jack finally regains consciousness, the anguished wails of a man who’s lost everything. 

He doesn’t see the man finally get on his feet, unsteadily walking away from the debris, burned flesh destroying the face he was once so proud of showing off, leaving Gabriel’s broken body in the wreckage. 

He doesn’t know the pain in Jack’s heart at having to leave his body behind. 

All he knows is suffering. 

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to [TimelessTragedy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessTragedy/) for beta reading and making sure what I wrote wasn't complete gibberish. 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](http://eachael.tumblr.com/) if that's your thing.


End file.
